Reading about the reading life: July 7, 2017 edition

 Welcome to another edition of "Reading about the reading life" here at The Itinerant Librarian. This is where I collect stories about reading and the reading life. Basically, these are items related to reading, maybe writing and literacy, that I find interesting and think my four readers might find interesting as well with a little commentary. As with other features I do on this blog, I do it when I have time or feel like it. Comments are always welcome (within reason).

This week, in addition to things about reading, I have a couple of items dealing with trivia that I felt were interesting enough to share as well. It's Friday, so let's have a look.

• The Daily Beast recently had a profile of Michael Thevis. You may not know the name off the top of your head, but in the 1970s, he made a fortune in the world of pornography way back in the good old days  before the Internet. And then all was lost in corruption, greed, and even murder. 
• Via Telesur, a report on a big find in Argentina. They found a big cache of Nazi artifacts, likely brought over by Nazi fugitives after World War II. They plan on donating the items to a museum. Part of the idea of making a donation is to  prevent resale of the items. 
• Someone observed that in bookstores diet books get primacy over books about eating disorders. Take it for what it's worth. Story via Refinery 29. 
• In Houston, they recently had a drag queen story hour. This story did make the rounds of librarian online forums for a while. Story via Houstonia Magazine. 
• A bookstore is opening up in the location that used to house a brothel, and they even have a coffee shop. Story via The Chronicle (Lewis County, WA). 
• Both as reader and librarian (and as a guy who enjoys porn now and then), I find porn statistics and trivia interesting. Porn Hub, it turns out, puts out a lot of information on their stats and analytics. This time around, it seems there is a disconnect between what gay porn studios make and what their customers actually want to watch. Story via VICE. 
• Speaking of research  and statistics, it seems Millennials are more likely to use public libraries. I could take this as another sign the economy is bad since that generation tends to be broke, so hey, public services including entertainment and education would be good. But I will take the good news about people using the library wherever I can get them. Another bit of trivia? Women are still ahead of men in terms of library usage. Story via Signature.
• Learn about "The Ghost Club" where famous figures including writers like Charles Dickens and Arthur Conan Doyle tackled a big issue of the 1800s: ghost and spirits. Story via Open Culture. 
• And finally for this week, John Hubbard offers a compilation of Top 20 Recent Library Scandals. Yes, libraries can be quite lurid places. Story via Medium.